Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS) - Part 2

This week on Super Adventures, I'm still taking a look at Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies! It's a JRPG, so it takes a while to get started. If you want to jump back to PART ONE instead, just click that text.

This was the second mainline Dragon Quest game to be released in Europe and the first to get a number. Dragon Quest VIII was just called Dragon Quest here, so if you're going off the titles it seems like we skipped 8 games. The series had made it over to the US though, where it was known as Dragon Warrior for a long while, and I tend to use the titles interchangeably when talking about earlier entries just to be unnecessarily confusing.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS) - Part 1

Developer:

Level-5

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Release Date:

EU/NA 2010 (2009 JP)

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Systems:

DS

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm taking a look at Dragon Quest IX (not to be confused with the latest game in the series, Dragon Quest XI).

This year I've been playing games that have made it onto someone's top 10 list and this one did one better than that, making it onto Gamesutra's "Best Of 2010: Top 5 Handheld Games" list. In fact it got first place, beating Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Persona 3 Portable, and Warioware D.I.Y.

There's no remakes, ports or mobile versions for me to mention for this Dragon Quest as the game only ever came out on one system: the Nintendo DS. They actually went and did it, they made a handheld exclusive sequel to a console exclusive series! Those monsters! I know it made total sense at the time for them to move to the DS because of the much lower costs, but I wasn't keen when Metal Gear Solid pulled this and I'm not keen on it here either. Handheld gaming isn't really the same experience and it doesn't necessarily appeal to the same people, so people who own one system aren't necessarily going to have the other. I suppose it could've been worse though: Dragon Quest X is an MMO!

I've actually beaten this one before, in the distant past, but I've no idea what to expect because I can't remember anything. Except maybe it has a side view battle system for a change? I do know that it's a bloody long game though, so I'm going to have to stick with it for a few hours longer than usual to give it a fair test. Long enough to get a party together and go complete a quest together at least. What I'm saying is... this is going to be another two-parter.

Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) - Part 2

This week on Super Adventures, I'm learning that Dragon Quest VIII is a very long game. So long that I'm going to have make a second article just to reach the second town.

I'm looking for the right place to stop playing, hopefully somewhere that looks cool and has a third party member to recruit. I mean how am I supposed to tell people I've got opinions about the game with a straight face when I've only gotten as far as running around a cave with my buddy Yangus?

If you want to read PART ONE instead just click that text.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PS2) - Part 1

Developer:

Level-5

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Release Date:

2006 EU (2004 JP, 2005 NA)

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Systems:

PS2, Mobile, 3DS

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing another Dragon Quest game! In fact this was the very first main Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior game released here in the UK where I am, so that's why it's just called 'Dragon Quest' up there. (The first game in the series released in Europe was Dragon Warrior Monsters in 1999 if you're curious).

To everyone else though this is Dragon Quest VIII, the eighth game in the legendary RPG series... though it is the first to be made by Level-5. The original five Dragon Quest games were by Chunsoft, then Heartbeat took over for six and seven, and now Level-5 has become the third developer to take the reigns. Like the last two games it came out pretty late in its console's life (JRPGs take a while to cook I guess), but at least it wasn't last gen on arrival this time! Well, except for when it finally arrived in Europe two years later.

I've been playing games from 'top 10' lists this year, and I found Dragon Quest 8 at #4 in Metacritic's top 10 PS2 RPGs list, between Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 (the number 1 game is Final Fantasy XII if you're curious). DQ8 and I have never really gotten on, I got frustrated early on by its combination of unskippable cutscenes and 'guess what NPC you have to talk to' gameplay, but I figured that if everyone else likes it so much I should probably give it another shot. And by 'shot' I mean I'm probably going to be stuck here playing it for five hours or more. But if it hasn't won me over by then, it's a lost cause.

Dragon Warrior VII / Dragon Quest VII (PSX) - Part 2

This week on Super Adventures, I'm still playing Dragon Warrior VII, a game that never actually starts.

It'd better give me some gameplay soon though, because there's not going to be a part three to this. There's countless other shiny things competing for my attention and I'm sure your patience isn't infinite either.

(If you want to jump back to part one click any of these words.)

Dragon Warrior VII / Dragon Quest VII (PSX) - Part 1

Developer:

Heartbeat

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Release Date:

2001 NA (2000 JP)

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Systems:

PSX, 3DS, iOS, Android

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This week on Super Adventures, it's Dragon Quest VII! Or Dragon Warrior VII if you're in the US (even though it was the fifth game released there).

If you're in Europe it's... nothing at all, because it just didn't come out here. We had to wait until until the 3DS remake was released 16 years later (with the new subtitle Fragments of the Forgotten Past). Enix basically ignored Europe so Dragon Quest wasn't a thing over here and I have absolutely zero knowledge about this game. Well, except for what I've just read on Wikipedia. It's apparently number 20th on the PlayStation's all-time best selling games list with 4.1 million sales!

The thing is, it was only sold in Japan and the US, and in America it sold just 200,000 copies over its lifetime, so that means 95% of those 4.1 million sales were in Japan alone. For comparison, Final Fantasy VII sold 330,000 copies in the US in its first weekend and it's currently up to 12.8 million sales worldwide (it's number 2 on the PlayStation all-time list). That one did come out in Europe btw.

I did another five minutes of research and learned that this was the last of the two Dragon Quest games made by Heartbeat, as they took a break afterwards and then never came back. I guess making a game this huge takes it out of you, especially when you're fully aware how massive the fanbase is. This was also the final main series Dragon Quest game to be published by Enix... because they merged with their nemesis Square in 2003. On the other hand, it's the first of the series to be released on the PlayStation, and it somehow came out after Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX. In fact the US version was released just six weeks before Final Fantasy X arrived there on the PS2!

Of course none of these games came out on the Nintendo 64, because Nintendo had pretty much opted out of JRPGs for that generation by opting to use low capacity cartridges instead of CDs. Though the game was originally announced for the N64DD!

I feel like I'm forgetting something. Oh right, this year I'm playing games that made it onto someone's 'top 10' list for whatever reason, and Dragon Quest VII was voted the 9th best game ever made on the 2006 Famitsu reader's poll. I'm going to give it an hour or so and see if I agree.

Dragon Warrior (NES)

Dragon Warrior may not be the first Japanese RPG ever made (not by a long shot), or even the first Japanese console RPG ever made, but it's the one that really set the template for the JRPG genre. Chunsoft grabbed the overhead view overworld adventuring from the Ultima games, the first person turn based battles from Wizardry, and fused them together with a Portopia Serial Murder Case style menu based interface to form a more accessible kind of RPG for a more mainstream audience.

Or so I've heard, I've never actually played the game. So I'm going to shut up, turn it on, and get myself educated about a piece of genuine videogame history.